THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507040186
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Guest Column
SOURCE: BY THE REV. KENNETH E. PEPPER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
LIBERTY. Freedom. Two of the most precious words in our society - in the world.
The desire to find and live in a community where freedom of the individual and liberty to live life according to one's own choices caused the United States of America to come into being.
We have a proud heritage in our great nation. A heritage that calls out to us to be responsible with the liberty we have, with the freedom we exercise. For 219 years, the United States has been inhabited by a people who are intolerant of intolerance. We are people of choice. A people of free will.
But we also tend to be a people who forget how we gained the liberty and won the freedom we have today. It was because those who established the laws and customs of our land were dedicated in three basic ways.
First, they were dedicated to God; second, they were dedicated to each other and; third, they were dedicated to the pursuit of liberty and freedom.
If we are to continue to be the nation those founders envisioned, we must regain their vision and resolve. We must reestablish our country as a bastion for religious commitment and liberty. And we must be ready to pay the price for freedom.
We must stop trying to suppress the ``free exercise of religion'' we are guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. It guarantees the freedom ``for'' religion as well as the freedom ``from'' religion. We must make room for each others' ``fors'' and ``froms.''
We must continue to be ready to pay the price for freedom. A price that may demand our ultimate. Jesus once declared, ``Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.'' (Matthew 5:9). If we are willing to ``keep the peace,'' we must be willing to ``make'' peace.
I once heard it said that war is a regrettable interlude between peace talks. Let's make peace by talking. But, if that fails, we must be ready to do more.
The fact that we benefit from what others have done to give us our freedom, to be at liberty, obligates us to pass on these precious gems to our posterity. The fact that we live in a free society because other nations stood at our ancestors' side when the need was there, behooves us to do the same for others.
The rest of the world sees the United States as ``Land of the free and the home of the brave.'' We are. We are because we protect the liberty of our citizens; we are because we promote freedom through-out the world. Let's celebrate freedom, let's rejoice in liberty, and may we ``let freedom ring'' in the United States, and wherever people want to be at liberty; wherever people want to be free. MEMO: The Rev. Kenneth E. Pepper has been the pastor of Liberty Spring
Christian Church in Suffolk since September 1992. Pepper is also a
chaplain with the U.S. Naval Reserve. He is providing ministerial
support to units of the Military Sealift Command. He was awarded the
rank of commander in December 1992.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
The Rev. Kenneth E. Pepper is pastor of Liberty Spring Christian
Church in Suffolk.
by CNB